Nearly forty workers found to have inhaled and been exposed to high doses of radiation after maintenance at Rawatbhata

On June 23rd, two workers at Unit 5 of the Rawatbhata Atomic Power Station in Rajasthan were found to have suffered exposure to high doses of radioactive tritium which was inhaled while carrying out maintenance activities, and are currently under observation.

Officials from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd said there was large amounts of tritium concentrated in the building of Reactor-5 due to the opening of the moderator cover gas line where the welding jobs were to be performed.

38 workers have been exposed to radioactive ‘tritium’ during a welding operation went wrong inside the protected environment of the reactor. A senior engineer has also been exposed to radiation, but the plant operations are continuing normally.

“All persons involved in the maintenance work were monitored and two were found to have four to five times higher uptake of tritium,” Nalinish Nagaich, Executive Director of the utility said.